BOSTON (CBS) – Boston Mayor Tom Menino said he will order Occupy Boston protesters to leave the encampment by midnight Thursday night.

“We’re going to ask the occupants of Dewey Square to be out of there by midnight,” Menino said Thursday.

If not, Menino says, “We’ll take further action.”

A judge lifted a restraining order on Wednesday that could have prevented the city of Boston from evicting Occupy Boston members from their encampment.

“The judge has made a decision, gave me the authority,” Menino said.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Frances McIntyre ruled that, “while Occupy Boston protesters may be exercising their expressive rights during their protest, they have no privilege under the First Amendment to seize and hold the land on which they sit.”

Mayor Menino cites public safety issues as his main concern in telling the protesters to leave.

“Public safety is number one,” he said.

Menino would not say definitively whether the city planned to act right at the midnight deadline.

WBZ-TV’s Bill Shields reports

Occupy Boston lawyers, however, had asked for a permanent restraining order, arguing that they were protected by the First Amendment and the city of Boston should not be allowed to evict protesters without a hearing. They planned to appeal the ruling on Thursday.

“I think there’s a lot of people down there who understand the court ruling, who will adhere to the court ruling,” he said. “After that, we’ll make decisions about how we clear off the site.”

Members of Occupy Boston were packing up in response to Menino’s order, but that didn’t mean they were leaving.

Even as many removed their tents, tarps still remain and plans are underway for a midnight dance party to maintain their physical presence. They also held workshops on civil disobedience as they prepare for possible arrest.

“There are few times you’re handed opportunities to know what you’ll stand for and what you won’t stand for,” said one protester who identified himself only as Chris.

Just FYI- we are moving valuables offsite, not decamping. Last time the BPD destroyed all of our belongings. #OccupyBoston#OBRaid

Many of the occupiers were removing their personal belongings from the camp, but vowed to stay in their tents.

“This is just a change in tactics,” said one, as he rolled up a tarp.

The camp has been at Dewey Square since the end of September, with the occupiers protesting what they call corporate greed, and government complicity.

Ryan Cahill is a college student, who has been there from the beginning.

“I think we created a brand…and our message got out. Now, if we have to leave, it will actually give us more man hours to pursue our goals,” he said.

Police are promising their tactics will be professional, but that anyone who doesn’t pack up and leave by midnight will be arrested.

Following what they anticipate will be a confrontation with police, protesters say they’ll gather in Chinatown and prepare to march.

At 8 a.m. Friday morning they plan to meet again at Dewey Square and march on the courthouses where they expect protesters will be arraigned for resisting arrest. “Just because the physical encampment is down doesn’t mean we’re done fighting,” said protester Michael Mango.

! Liberal, Neo-conservative useful idiots and critics of Assembly, and frankly haters of truth and freedom, exist by feeding on the entrepreneurial, middle class.
Which explains why the nation’s respect and admiration are with Occupy and with the Anonymous, Wikileaks and Ruckus brigades. Thanx for all of your service.
For they know, proletariat’s bad children and parasites, sic Zionist apparachiks of the Fed, IMF and World Bank, will never admonish the Crony Capitalism feeding their addictions and narcissism. A special interest needful and earnest of all the hearty, steamy excrement patriots can provide. Sh!t and p!ss on, noble flea-baggers, lest the streets flow with blood.

they’ll refuse to leave so the police will have to force them out and then they’ll complain that they aren’t a violent protest yet the police are resorting to violence. It’s about time they got sent on their way!

The right to peaceably assemble and the right to freedom of speech do not mean a public space can be taken over so that citizens cannot enjoy that space. Now would be a good time for them to protest the pres’ recently announced 17-day Hawaiian vacation, or Brady and Giselle’s new uber-mansion they are building, or the Kardashian’s homes (heeelllooooo – can you say waste of money on Kim’s wedding??)

I’ll keep saying it – why don’t you put half the effort into complaining about the corruption in Washington as you do into worrying about a small group of people. It is clear why this country is going down the tubes.

Thank you Occupiers for bringing the issue of wealth inequality to the front burner. Thank you Mayor Menino and the Boston Police Department for your long patience with the occupiers. It took a long time but they really got under some people’s skin as is evident in the blogs. Good job! Now go home and enjoy the Holidays with your loved ones.

Thank you Occupiers for bringing the issue of wealth inequality to the front burner. Thank you Mayor Menino and the Boston Police Department for your long patience with the occupiers. It took a long time but they really got under some people’s skin as is evident in the blogs. Good job! Now go home and enjoy the Holidays with your loved ones.

They can still protest right? Just can’t camp out? Will be harder work for them but I would support them. If not being able to camp out puts and end to it will be percieved that they were not really protesting against corruption, just crying for a quick way to wipe off their own debt that was created through their own fault.

Commenting about governtment corruption is totally valid, but complaining about Brady’s pay or Lardassian’s income is not. They are paid through private companies who can do whatever they want with their own money.

If this post doesnt show up then I will be going to WCVB’s web site from now on.

These people are foolish! Making a mess out of the space. Pack up, go home, and find a job. Work at McDonalds if you have to, they are hiring all of the time. What the hell is camping out for months going to do, stop wasting time and start working.

Instead of camping out in green spaces any longer (heck, I’d like to have a new waterview lodging and may decide to move into a tent on the Esplanade beside the Charles River…here I come, new Back Bay neighbors!), I’d like to see the Occupiers continue to work their butts off educating and networking themselves, and getting themselves hired into positions of authority where they can make all the justifiable changes they are striving and fighting for, but from the inside. Sitting on and blocking the corporate ladder isn’t going to stop the suits from ignoring them. The suits will just use the elevator around them. Instead, Occupiers should climb up that ladder, get in the jobs, and make those changes from within, changing the system.

Instead of camping out in green spaces any longer (heck, I’d like to have a new water view lodging and may decide to move into a tent on the Esplanade beside the Charles River…here I come, new Back Bay neighbors!), I’d like to see the Occupiers continue to work hard at educating and networking themselves, and getting themselves hired into positions of authority where they can make all the justifiable changes they are striving and fighting for, but from the inside. Sitting on and blocking the corporate ladder isn’t going to stop the suits from ignoring them. The suits will just use the elevator around them. Instead, Occupiers should climb up that ladder, get in the jobs, and make those changes from within, changing the system.

These idiots have no cause. There’s no “idea whose time has come”, and it’s pathetic how the local Boston media has assigned any legitimacy to these clowns. On any average day you see more cops than occupods at this encampment. This spectacle tonight is a joke. These college twits who showed up in response to the twitter and facebook pleas haven’t slept a night at this camp. And they’ll sleep in their comfy dorm rooms and apartments tonight. This is nothing but an excuse to act out on a Thursday night. Menino’s a piece of garbage.

This is got to be the worst television coverage I have ever heard in my entire life.
WBZ reporters are worse then incompetent ,there blatantly subjective and that makes them bought and sold media swine.

After one person got arrested for attacking protesters….
Reporter: It looks like some people are getting out of hand!! it’s getting really tense out here! People have had enough with this protest, the police just want to move the protest in the most peaceful way possible but there seems to be a bunch of anarchists trying to make it difficult and provoke the officers..Let’s see if we can talk to one…excuse me miss!!!
Woman: yeah
Reporter: How do you feel about protesters getting violent
Woman: You mean the police?
Reporter: No I am talking about the anarchists!
Woman: I am an anarchist I am not violent
Reporters: How do you feel about the provocateurs causing violence?
Woman: You mean the police?
Reporter: No the protesters
Woman: I haven’t seen any violence from the protesters, We are unarmed.
Reporters: You mean you don’t have fists?
Woman: I mean we don’t have guns or clubs or pepper spray or tazzers
Reporter: Thank you

Anchor woman: Hello? Hello? I hear a lot of honking!
Reporter: Yes there has been a lot of that from cars passing by! People have had just enough of this protest!

Is this some sort of joke or is the this kind of gutless media coverage actually real…Are people really absorbing this bias mess without questioning it? There is certainly a lot of shame to go around.